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Army

An army, in the broadest sense, is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps. Within a national military force, the word army may also mean a field army an army composed of full-time career soldiers who 'stand over', in other words, who do not disband during times of peace. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war or natural disasters.
In several countries, the army is officially called the Land Army to differentiate it from an air force called the Air Army, notably France. In such countries, the word "army" on its own retains its connotation of a land force in common usage. The current largest army in the world, by number of active troops, is the People's Liberation Army of China with 2,250,000 active troops and 800,000 reserve personnel followed by the Indian Army with 1,129,000 active troops and 960,000 reserve personnel.
By convention, irregular military is understood in contrast to regular armies which grew slowly from personal bodyguards or elite militia. Regular in this case refers to standardized doctrines, uniforms, organizations, etc. Regular military can also refer to full-time status, versus reserve or part-time personnel. Other distinctions may separate statutory forces, from de facto "non-statutory" forces such as some guerrilla and revolutionary armies. Armies may also be expeditionary or fencible.

The Roycroft DictionaryRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

army

A body of humanitarians that seeks to impress on another body of men the beauty of non-resistance, by exterminating them.

British National Corpus

Spoken Corpus Frequency

Rank popularity for the word 'ARMY' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #852

Written Corpus Frequency

Rank popularity for the word 'ARMY' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1457